In the heavyweight brackets in last Saturday night’s M-1 Selection 2010 – Americas second round tournament, Mehdi Hassan fought a perfect battle against Robert Leonard and earned himself a first round KO victory that had the crowd on its feet.
Hassan’s professional debut in June 2009 at “Best of the Best” was not the start to his career he’d hoped for as he suffered a KO defeat at the hands of Mark George late in the second round. With the win against Leonard, Hassan improves himself to 1-1 and showed marked improvement in his abilities with methodical positioning within the confines of the five-rope ring, pushing the action, circling his opponent and going in for crisp striking and counters at will. The highlight shot of the bout came thanks to a thunderous right hand landing over Leonard’s left eye brow, which immediately split open and quickly spattered the canvass with a steady trickle of blood.
“I think my first pro bout was full of tactical errors and I went back to camp focussed on everything,” says Hassan. “I felt more aware of my position in the ring this time and I was able to push the action yet be patient at the same time – then BAM, I rocked him with the right and that just fuelled me from there.”
“The heavyweights are always interesting to watch,” says M-1 Global’s Director of Operations, Evgeni Kogan. “They bring a ton of power into the ring. These are big strong men looking to continue their careers as professional fighters. Hassan left nothing on the table in his fight and I’m looking forward to watching his next fight at the M-1 Selections semi-finals.”
The M-1 Selection 2010 – Americas tournament continues its gruelling structure on August 7th and Hassan will be looking to earn another hard fought victory and move himself into the finals in mid-September.
The M-1 Selection2010 – Americas tournament third round takes place live on August 7 at Bally’s Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Tickets are available through www.TicketMaster.com. Doors open at 7:00 pm, first fight at 7:30 PM/ET.
Free broadcast coverage of the entire 2010 M-1 Selection tournament will be available live to viewers worldwide on www.M-1global.com and selected affiliate partner sites.
